The present invention relates generally to improvements in pressurized storage receptacles and it relates particularly to an improved pressurized receptacle for storing a large number of gas pressurized balls under an external gas pressure to maintain the liveliness and optimum configuration of the individual balls.
In the playing of tennis and many other ball games, a gas pressurized hollow ball is employed, and in a case of tennis the ball is spherical and of a standard diameter and it is covered with a fibrous nap. Important parameters of the ball are its bounce or liveliness and this is a function of the ball's internal gas pressure, its size and spherical configuration and the condition of the fibrous nap. All of these parameters should be maintained constant and uniform from ball to ball and during the useful life of the ball. Since the reaction of the ball to the impact of the racket and its ground rebound characteristics are functions of the above parameters any significant change or variation thereof adversely affects the proper playing of the game.
Tennis balls are generally packaged and marketed in pressurized hermetically sealed containers so as to minimize or prevent any diffusion outwardly of the pressurized gas in the ball which would reduce its liveliness and so as to obviate any distortion of the ball from its standard size or shape as a consequence of the ball's high internal pressure. However, upon opening the pressurized container the diffusion of the pressured gas from the ball and the distortion of the ball commences so that the ball is thereafter of limited useful life in the proper playing of tennis. Many devices, both of a gas pressurized and a mechanical pressing nature have heretofore been proposed for extending the life of the ball by maintaining the ball's internal pressure and shape and size. As an example, our earlier patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,807 discloses several devices which produce excellent results, but are limited to the number of balls that can be acted upon. Other devices are often complex and inconvenient to employ or they have been unsatisfactory in that they tended to damage the surface of the ball, thereby adversely affecting the ball's playing properties and otherwise left much to be desired.